The Marxist Perspective on education Flashcards
What do Marxist believe the purpose of education is ?
- Reproduces class inequality.
- Legitimates class inequality.
- It works in the interests of capitalist employers
Explain The reproduction of class inequality
In school, the middle classes use their material and cultural capital to ensure that their children get into the best schools and the top sets. This means that the wealthier pupils tend to get the best education and then go onto to get middle-class jobs. Meanwhile, working class children are more likely to get a poorer standard of education and end up in working-class jobs. In this way class inequality is reproduced
Explain The Legitimation of class inequality
Marxists argue that in reality money determines how good an education you get, but people do not realize this because schools spread the ‘myth of meritocracy’ – in school we learn that we all have an equal chance to succeed and that our grades depend on our effort and ability. Thus if we fail, we believe it is our own fault. This legitimates or justifies the system because we think it is fair when in reality it is not.
Who came up with Teaching the skills future capitalist employers need and under what name
Bowles and Gintis suggest that there is a correspondence between values learnt at school and the way in which the workplace operates. The values, they suggested, are taught through the ‘Hidden Curriculum’. The Hidden Curriculum consists of those things that pupils learn through the experience of attending school rather than the main curriculum subjects taught at the school. So pupils learn those values that are necessary for them to tow the line in menial manual jobs,
Give examples of the correspondence principle and hidden curriculum
- SCHOOL VALUES Corresponds to EXPLOITATIVE LOGIC OF THE WORKPLACE
- Passive subservience (of pupils to teachers) corresponds to Passive subservience of workers to managers
- Acceptance of hierarchy (authority of teachers) corresponds to Authority of managers
- Motivation by external rewards (grades not learning) corresponds to being Motivated by wages not the joy of the job
Positive Evaluations of the Traditional Marxist Perspective on Education
- There is an overwhelming wealth of evidence that schools do reproduce class inequality because the middle classes do much better in education because they have more cultural capital (Reay) and because the 1988 Education Act benefited them (Ball Bowe and Gewirtz)
- Conversely, WWC children less likely to go to university because of fear of debt (Connor et al)
Negative Evaluations of the Traditional Marxist Perspective on Education
- Henry Giroux, says the theory is too deterministic. He argues that working class pupils are not entirely molded by the capitalist system, and do not accept everything that they are taught – Paul Willis’ study of the ‘Lads’ also suggests this.
- Education can actually harm the Bourgeois – many left wing, Marxist activists are university educated
Who is Paul Willis and what was his concept
Neo-Marxism and Learning to labour
Describe the Leaning labour study
Willis’ research involved visiting one school and observing and interviewing 12 working class rebellious boys about their attitude to school during their last 18 months at school and during their first few months at work.
What did the Learning labour study show
Willis argues pupils rebelling are evidence that not all pupils are brainwashed into being passive, subordinate people as a result of the hidden curriculum.
Evaluations of Willis
Very small sample of only working class white boys Overly sympathetic with the boys – going native?
